Secure revisioning auditing system for electronic document files

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems for providing secure recording of revisions made to electronic documents, using secure methods to validate the recorded changes, are disclosed. An electronic device making a change to an electronic document can transmit the change to the network. An audit log chain is residing on the network and shared among all the nodes on the network. A node on the network can verify a change of document made by other nodes and add a new block to the chain using one-way hashes, making the chain resistant to tampering. If an invalid block is detected, the system can send an auditing alert to the network. The audit log can be strongly resistant to tampering, providing reliable evidence for use in audit compliance, investigations, and business or court record keeping.

RELATED APPLICATIONS AND CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This patent document claims priority to, and is a continuation of, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 15/044,574, filed Feb. 16, 2016. Thedisclosure of the priority application is fully incorporated into thisdocument by reference.

BACKGROUND

This patent document relates to versioning control in an electronicdocument file management system. More specifically, the presentdisclosure relates to a secure revisioning audit system for electronicdocument files.

Electronic document files, which may include documents, programmingfiles and data records change over time. They go through revisions,additions and deletions. Tracking these changes, so any previous versionof a document can be recreated, is called version control or sourcecontrol, and it is well known in computer programming and documentmanagement systems. When a new version of any source is created, thedifference (called a diff) between the new version and the old versionis created. Any version can be recreated by combining all diffs up tothat version, or subtracting diffs from the latest version. Therepositories of these diffs are invaluable tools for programmers,however, they are not intended to be secure. Some version controlsystems make it fairly easy to edit entries in the revision system. Thismay not be of a concern for most documents because it is enough to beable to access the most recent version, whereas older versions aresimply obsolete. However, for some high stakes electronic documents,such as electronic medical records (or electronic health records,sometimes referred to as EHRs), bank records or the documentation of acriminal investigation, it is important not only to have the most recentversion but to be able to audit the changes made and who made them.

There can be many applications to drive the need for an audit trail. Forexample, medical records may be reviewed to determine how treatmentmistakes are made, either for educational purposes or as part of alawsuit. Financial records might be audited for compliance to laws andregulations or to discover embezzling or other misconduct. Criminalinvestigative records, including such disparate items as interviewnotes, crime scene photos and DNA test results, are so critical evidencein a court that any alternation can have significant consequences.

While creating an audit trail is relatively easy, protecting it fromtampering or simple error is difficult. Those who would alter or destroythese records are normally highly motivated and may only need a littleknowledge of database hacking or someone else's passwords to achievetheir goal.

In a related field, Bitcoin technology, which is developed forelectronic commerce, includes elements that can greatly improve theprocess of keeping records in an auditable and secure form. The heart ofthis technology is a data structure called the blockchain. In essence, ablockchain is a data structure that links successive transaction recordswith one-way cryptographic hashes. Coupled with a processor intensiveprocess called “Proof of Work” and a distributed consensus system, datawritten to a blockchain is extremely resistant to changes of any kind.

While Bitcoin technology is developed for securing transactions forelectronic commerce that involves money (digital or otherwise), it wouldnot work for securing and auditing records with no money changing handsin a transaction. For example, the Bitcoin protocol uses randomlygenerated addresses to make transactions anonymous. This portion of theprotocol is incompatible with the goals of verifiable auditing, as theidentity of the sender (the person currently editing a document) is tiedto the person responsible for making the change of the document andshould not be anonymous. Further, the Bitcoin protocol specifies alldetails (except for 40 bytes of arbitrary data) of the data included ina transaction. It is not adaptable to the type of diff data in documentversioning control. A way of keeping records that is reliable andresistant to tampering is therefore needed.

This document describes devices and methods that are intended to addressissues discussed above and/or other issues.

SUMMARY

Embodiments for secure revisioning auditing for electronic documentfiles are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method may include identifyinga first version of an electronic document, receiving, from a userelectronic device, a revised version of the electronic document,analyzing the first version and the revised version to create a diffbetween the first version and the revised version, forming a data packetthat comprises the diff and an identifier for the user electronic deviceor for a user of the user electronic device, accessing a private key forthe user or the user electronic device, signing the diff with theprivate key, causing the signed diff to be saved to a signed data packeton a communication network, and transmitting the signed data packet tomultiple nodes on the communication network. The method may alsoinclude, by a first node on the communication network, receiving asigned data packet on the communication network, grouping the signeddata packet with other signed data packets into a block, accessing achain on the communication network, validating the block, and uponvalidation of the block, updating the chain based on the validatedblock, and saving the updated chain to a memory so that the chain isavailable to share by multiple nodes on the communication network.

In one embodiment, the method may also include, by the first node,verifying the signed data packet before grouping signed data packetsinto blocks. In verifying the signed data packet, the method may includeverifying the signed data packet against one or more rules to determinewhether the one or more rules are satisfied, and generating an alertwhen at least one of the one or more rules is not satisfied. In oneembodiment, in validating a block, the first node verifies whether theblock is already validated by a second node of the system, and if so,abandon the validation of the block.

In one embodiment, a system for securely auditing revisions to anelectronic document may include a processing device and a hardware-basednon-transitory storage medium containing program instructions, whichwill identify a first version of an electronic document, receive, from auser electronic device, a revised version of the electronic document,analyze the first version and the revised version to create a diffbetween the first version and the revised version, form a data packetthat comprises the diff and an identifier for the user electronic deviceor for a user of the user electronic device, access a private key forthe user or the user electronic device, sign the diff with the privatekey, transmit the signed data packet to multiple nodes on thecommunication network, and receive an alert from the communicationnetwork when at least one of the nodes on the communication networkfails to verify the signed data packet.

In one embodiment, a method for securely auditing revisions to anelectronic document may include receiving, from a user electronicdevice, a diff of an electronic document, where the diff is representingof a difference between a first version and a revised version of theelectronic document, forming a data packet that includes the diff and anidentifier for the user electronic device or for a user of the userelectronic device, accessing a private key for the user or the userelectronic device, signing the diff with the private key, causing thesigned diff to be saved to a signed data packet on a communicationnetwork, transmitting the signed data packet to multiple nodes on thecommunication network; and receiving an alert from the communicationnetwork when at least one of the nodes on the communication networkfails to verify the signed data packet.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts an example of the auditing system according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 2 depicts a flow chart of a portion of a revision auditing processaccording to one embodiment.

FIG. 3 depicts a flow chart of another portion of a revision auditingprocess according to one embodiment.

FIG. 4 depicts an example of a diff record.

FIG. 5 depicts various embodiments of one or more electronic devices forimplementing the various methods and processes described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

This disclosure is not limited to the particular systems, methodologiesor protocols described, as these may vary. The terminology used in thisdescription is for the purpose of describing the particular versions orembodiments only, and is not intended to limit the scope.

As used in this document, any word in singular form, along with thesingular forms “a,” “an” and “the,” include the plural reference unlessthe context clearly dictates otherwise. Unless defined otherwise, alltechnical and scientific terms used herein have the same meanings ascommonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. Allpublications mentioned in this document are incorporated by reference.Nothing in this document is to be construed as an admission that theembodiments described in this document are not entitled to antedate suchdisclosure by virtue of prior invention. As used herein, the term“comprising” means “including, but not limited to.”

In this document, the term “electronic device” refers to a device havinga processor and a non-transitory, computer-readable medium (i.e.,memory). The memory may contain programming instructions in the form ofa software application that, when executed by the processor, causes thedevice to perform one or more processing operations according to theprogramming instructions. An electronic device also may includeadditional components such as a touch-sensitive display device thatserves as a user interface, as well as a camera or other image capturingdevice. An electronic device also may include one or more communicationhardware components such as a transmitter to enable the device to sendsignals to other devices or a receiver to receive signals from otherdevices, whether via a communications network or via near-field orshort-range communication protocols. Examples of electronic devicesinclude computer servers, personal computers, multi-function devices,smartphones, tablet computing devices, electronic readers, and the like.

The term “electronic document” refers to any piece of information storedelectronically, be it text, image, video or a hybrid of those. It may bea simple electronic file or a data structure that is stored in a storagemedium or a memory of a processing device.

The term “diff” refers to a quantifiable measure or assessment of thedifference between a first version of an electronic document and arevision of the electronic document. In one embodiment, it may be in asimilar data structure as the result of UNIX “diff” command. In anotherembodiment, it may be a proprietary or standard data structure torepresent a difference between two versions of a document. For example,the diff for a text document may be represented by ASCII characters,whereas the diff for an image document may be represented by binarydata. A diff can result from comparing the contents of a currentdocument from its immediate preceding version, or comparing the contentsof a current document from older version several changes removed up tothe original version.

The term “record” refers to a data structure representing an instance ofa diff. It may be protected by a cryptographic scheme using aprivate/public key pair.

The term “transaction” refers to a change to an electronic document thatresults in the generation of a diff.

The term “block” refers to a list of transactions in a data structure.

Each of the terms “blockchain” and “chain” refers to a data structurecontaining a chain of blocks.

Each of the terms “server” or “node” refers to a computing device havinga processor, either locally or on a network, which functions to verifythe legitimacy of a transaction initiated by a different electronicdevice. The terms “first,” “second” and the like do not limit to anyparticular element, any particular order, or the number of elements.They are used to purely describe distinct elements and provideantecedent basis thereof.

With reference to FIG. 1, an overall auditing system is shown accordingto an embodiment. The system includes a communication network 101, oneor more servers (nodes) 102, 103, 104, and one or more electronicdevices 110, 111, 112 on the communication network. Each of theelectronic devices may create and edit the electronic documents 120,121, 122 and may have a capability to verify identity of those who usethe document and securely send every change to every record to theauditing system via the communication network 101. In one embodiment,each of the nodes on the communication network can be installed in eachof the organizational units in the overall system, such as the hospital,the critical care unit or the doctor's office. The node in each of theseorganizational units can create its own records in the blockchain orverify the records created by other nodes. In one embodiment, theauditing system uses an encryption process, such as public keycryptography, to sign all record changes in an electronic document (withthe private half of a key pair) and to verify that records have not beenaltered (with the public half of the key pair). This is important inensuring the security of record changes before they are fixed in theblockchain. The security of the disclosed system and method may improveas the system becomes larger. Therefore, it is very appropriate forlarge enterprises such as regional hospital systems or multi-nationalcorporations.

The details of a transaction lifecycle in the disclosed system will befurther explained. Before a transaction can begin, a user must beidentified by the system. The authentication can be implemented usingany known methods in the field. Typically in modern systemsauthentication is done by typing in a username and password. Strongermethods, such as two-factor identification with biometric features, suchas fingerprints, are also available.

In one embodiment, a suitably authenticated and authorized user is givenaccess to a document. In most modern systems, electronic documentshaving the highest stakes are accessed through customized software thatpresents form fields to be filled in and stores the resulting documentsin a database. For purposes of this disclosure, these database recordswork as a more traditional document (e.g., a file generated by a wordprocessing application such as Microsoft Word). In one example accordingto one embodiment, the user will make some changes. For example,accountants may enter a transaction code, doctors may order a test,managers may enter a note in a personnel record, auditors may note anerror. In one embodiment, the user may cause a document processingapplication to store the changes to a memory as an updated electronicdocument. In another embodiment, the system may automatically save thechanges as they are being made by the user.

As shown in FIG. 2, according to one embodiment, a user works on anelectronic device or a terminal, which accesses or generates a privatekey for the user 201. Keys can be issued by the electronic device theuser is using, by a backend store (e.g. on a remote server) or a hardwallet (from a USB drive or other communicatively connected memorydevice). Each key is associated with one and only one user of thesystem, i.e., each key is unique to the user. However, the disclosedsystem does not restrict users to one public private key pair at a time.For example, one user may have many key pairs, even going as far ashaving a new pair for every transaction. Keys can be generated by anyexisting methods in the field. For example, with Bitcoin, keys aremanaged by a piece of software called a wallet. It is possible for usersto carry wallet software on a portable memory device such as a USB thumbdrive (i.e., a hard wallet). There are also deterministic methods forcreating keys from a seed such as a password or biometric identifier.

In one embodiment, once a user has made a change to an electronicdocument 202, the system generates and saves a data packet 203. In oneembodiment, the system identifies a first version of the document 223,receives a revised version 224, analyzes the first version and therevised version to create a diff 225 between the first version and therevised version. The system may form a data packet 226 that encapsulatesthe changes made to the document (diff) and the identifier for the userwho has made the changes. Additionally, the system may also addadditional metadata to the data packet, such as an identifier for theelectronic device or location at which the user has made the changes. Inanother embodiment, a timestamp can also be added. In a non-limitingexample, a sample diff of a simulated medical record is shown in FIG. 4.In this example, both the original version and the altered version areconverted as JSON (Java Script Object Notation) documents, then thestandard Unix diff generation code is used to produce the diff. Othermethods, such as converting to XML first, or comparing records byte bybyte are also possible. Additionally and/or alternatively, the systemcan also encrypt the data in the diff using any now or hereafter knownencryption technologies in the field, to increase the level of security.In another embodiment, the diff is not limited to text but can also beused for images in a document, in which the diff can representincremental changes between old and new images or represent the completenew image without comparing to the old image.

With further reference to FIG. 2, the system may access a user's privatekey 201 and sign off the data packet by the user's private key 204. Thesystem may save the signed data packet into a data store as part of atransaction 205 and transmit it to a node on a network such as theInternet 206 and/or another communication network. A blockchain thatincludes the transaction will be cooperatively developed by multiplenodes on the network. In one embodiment, when one node receives atransaction from an electronic device, it passes the transaction on toother nodes it has communicated with. In this way, even a very largenumber of nodes may all be informed of new transactions in a fraction oftime, such as under a few seconds.

In one embodiment, nodes must be validated as legitimate members of thenetwork because of the high security nature of the auditing system. Thedocuments whose changes are stored on the blockchain are not publicdocuments, therefore, the computers that handle them may be under thecontrol of a single organization, be it a hospital, governmentdepartment or international business. Likewise, all transactions andfinalized blocks will only be accepted if they come from known sources.This is to prevent network intrusions that might seek to insert ahostile system into the network. The system will only allow legitimatemembers (nodes) on the network to download and view a transaction or theblockchain. In another embodiment, the system will also give nodes fullread-write access to update the blockchain.

A legitimate node may receive a signed transaction data packet from thenetwork 210 and access the contents of the transaction 211. The node mayvalidate the signed data packet 212, and upon validation of the signeddata packet, update the blockchain 213. In some embodiments, a node maybe permitted to update a blockchain with a new transaction only if atleast a threshold number (e.g., a majority) of the nodes on the networkhave verified the blockchain.

With reference to FIG. 3, in validating the signed data packet, at leastsome of the nodes may verify the contents of the signed transaction datapacket 306, upon successful verification of the signed transaction datapacket 307, group available transaction data packets into blocks 301,and then validate a block 302 by, for example, creating what is known asa proof of work on the block. A proof of work is a piece of data orprocess that can be used to verify the contents of a blockchain. If thenode has successfully created a proof of work, the block is valid 303and the node may update the blockchain with the new block 304. If thenode fails to verify a signed transaction data packet or fails to createa proof of work 308, it may send an auditing alert 305.

In verifying a transaction data packet 306, a node also may check thetransaction against various rules. The rules can be kept on centralizedservers, while in more distributed systems, all nodes would have a copyof all rules. In one embodiment, a node may determine whether alegitimate change (diff) has been made based on a timestamp of eachtransaction. For example, a node may compare the timestamp of a doctor'stranscript with the office hours of the doctor's office. If thetimestamp of the doctor's transcript is outside of the doctor's officehours, the system may determine that the change (diff) is not legitimateand subsequently send an alert. In another embodiment, the node maycheck whether a document change made by a doctor against the doctor'saccess rights to the document and determine whether the doctor haschanged what he or she is allowed to change. In other embodiments, therules may include security rules, i.e. users and their roles allowed toperform certain actions. The rules may also include business rules,i.e., how actions must be grouped, for example, when a credit is givento a customer, the system may require a complementary product bescheduled for shipment as well.

When one or more rules are not satisfied, the system may reject atransaction. An example alert would include the transaction hash, andthe reason for rejecting it (i.e. what rule was violated). In oneembodiment, the system may flag a rejected transaction with theappropriate rule and written to the blockchain like any othertransaction. This would enable strong auditing. In another embodiment,the system may drop a rejected transaction and send a notification tothe electronic device that generated them to revert the document to aversion or form that existed before the offending change. In anotherembodiment, if the failure of verification is related to a corrupteddata structure, the system may simply request the sender to re-send.While the system may support the verification of transactions, in oneembodiment, this method can also be optional, and the system may proceedto group transactions into blocks 301 and validate blocks (creating aproof of work) 302, which will be described in detail as below.

In grouping transactions into blocks 301, the node may choose the sizedata for grouping (which can vary greatly among diffs) and target at adefined size, such as 500 MB of data per block. In another embodiment,the node may group by raw number, i.e., at first come, first servedbasis until the size of the block reaches a threshold such as 500 MB. Inanother embodiment, the node could prioritize certain documents or typesof changes or even people making changes being added to a block first.

In validating a block 302, the node may create a proof of work for theblock using any of various methods. In one embodiment, the node may adda nonce (a random number) to the block data, then hash the block data.If the hash fails to meet the needs of the proof of work, the nonce ischanged and a new hash is made. Because of the nature of hashing, thenew hash will be completely different form the old one. This process maybe repeated until the resulting hash passes the test.

An example test for a proof of work may convert the generated hash valueinto a number in binary format (1's and 0's) and compare that number toa target value. If the number is less than the target value, the proofof work passes the test. If it is greater than that target number theproof of work would fail. The target number of the proof of work may bechanged in order to accommodate an increased number of nodes on thenetwork (thus making it harder to find a good number reduces the numberof “collisions” with several nodes creating a good block simultaneously)or reduced when to deal with a large amount of data traffic (allowingthe system to generate more blocks in a shorter time when there is aneed). Alternate methods of proof of work include more complexmathematical operations, such as generating a valid series of primenumbers. Various embodiments include methods of proof of work that havebeen developed to date, and that may be developed in the future.

When creating the proof of work, one node may make the nonce, the datablock and the hash all available to the other nodes on the network,which can reproduce the hash and test it for meeting requirements inalmost no time. If a proof of work is not successfully created, this mayindicate that tampering on the signed diff data packet may haveoccurred, or an invalid change or ill formed packet (e.g. caused by badhardware that corrupts data traffic) may exist. The system may send anauditing alert 305 in a similar method as when the node fails to verifya transaction. If a proof of work is successfully created, the node mayaccept a valid block by expanding the blockchain using the hash of theaccepted block as the previous hash.

In one embodiment, the list of transactions (hash) can be built usingthe Merkle tree of all transactions in the block. Other linking methodscan be used as well. A node can run as a full network node, i.e., a nodethat can create a block from many transactions. There are also nodesthat just relay information from other nodes on the network and comparehashes to ensure new blocks are valid. For example, a node may onlyobtain the longest blockchain from the network and keep a copy of blockheaders of the longest chain. In some embodiments, these nodes couldalso prioritize and route transactions.

In one embodiment, there is only one blockchain on the network that isaccessible to all other nodes. In another embodiment, a node may chooseto obtain an updated chain from the communication network if the node isoff-line for a period of time. Alternatively and additionally, thesystem may perform quality check to determine whether one or morequality criteria associated with creating and/or validating a block aresatisfied. If one or more quality criteria are not satisfied, the systemmay determine to obtain an updated chain. For example, if a node findsit has generated bad blocks many times in a row, it could simply decideto dump its own copy of the blockchain and use the most current chain onthe network. In another embodiment, a node's blockchain may be out ofsync with the rest of the network for many reasons, such as networkissues, bad software updates and corrupted database files. In that case,the node would have to refresh some or all of the blocks in its copy ofthe blockchain from another source. In one embodiment, while the noderefreshes one or more blocks from another source, it verifies theintegrity of hashes of these blocks.

When a node has successfully created a proof of work for a valid block,it sends the solution (the proof of work) to the other nodes. In oneembodiment, when a node receives a valid block (the proof of work isvalid) from other nodes, it will abandon any other block that it hasbeen building (which includes many of the same transactions) and beginworking on the next.

In one embodiment, at intervals, a node may insert a transaction aboutits own state into the blockchain in the same way other transactions areinserted, and transmit the updated blockchain to other nodes. Thistransaction describes various operational information such as systemname, uptime, number of blocks processed, number of transactions in theunassigned pool, current time and location and any other relevant data.This transaction entry serves various purposes, such as: (1) it providesa quality check, showing that a node is operating correctly; and b) itshows when a new node is added to the network. This helps catch roguenodes (because only known nodes may participate in transaction and blockcreation as explained above). This transaction also provides an auditcheck on processed blocks. That is, since the number of nodes is known,the rate at which they produce their data should be predictable. Anysudden increases or decreases in the rate indicate problems such asnetwork issues or even tampering with nodes.

The use of the blockchain, as disclosed above, is auditable. The moreblocks there are beyond a given point of interest, the more difficult itis for anyone to make changes at that point. In other words, inre-constructing a document from the diff, the system may determine thatblocks at certain length from a given point of interest are correct andof very high confidence. In general, the newest blocks are those thatare the least secure and the oldest the most secure.

In one embodiment, the disclosed blockchain-based auditing system maywork in parallel with any database system and it may offer variousadvantages such as achieving high security. For example, ordinarydatabases can be hacked, logins can be stolen but a blockchain basedsystem will show quickly when inconsistencies in the record appear.

As can be appreciated to one ordinarily skilled in the art, the abovedisclosed system and method can be advantageous in many applicationssince it provides a cryptographically secured record of all changes toimportant records, so that accuracy can be guaranteed and attempts tosubvert that accuracy traced. For example, hospitals, banks, governmentagencies and even the companies that make software for airplanes andnuclear power plants, can benefit from having not just an audit trailbut an incorruptible record of all changes. These benefits allow recordowners to recover work that may have been altered or destroyed from moretraditional control systems and pinpoint the exact moment when thingswent wrong.

FIG. 5 depicts an example of internal hardware that may be included inany of the electronic components of the system, the user terminal, nodeor server or another device in the system. An electrical bus 500 servesas an information highway interconnecting the other illustratedcomponents of the hardware. Processor 505 is a central processing deviceof the system, configured to perform calculations and logic operationsrequired to execute programming instructions. As used in this documentand in the claims, the terms “processor” and “processing device” mayrefer to a single processor or any number of processors in a set ofprocessors. Read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), flashmemory, hard drives and other devices capable of storing electronic dataconstitute examples of memory devices 510. A memory device may include asingle device or a collection of devices across which data and/orinstructions and/or one or more other electronic documents are stored.

In one embodiment, the system may contain program instructions on anon-transitory storage medium that can be executed on the processingdevice or an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) to be ableto handle computation intensive calculations. Alternatively and/oradditionally, because creating a proof of work is so processorintensive, the program instructions may also be executed on a GPU(Graphics Processing Unit).

An optional display interface 530 may permit information from the bus500 to be displayed on a display device 545 in visual, graphic oralphanumeric format. An audio interface and audio output (such as aspeaker) also may be provided. Communication with external devices mayoccur using various communication devices 540 such as a transmitterand/or receiver, antenna, an RFID tag and/or short-range or near-fieldcommunication circuitry. A communication device 540 may be attached to acommunications network, such as the Internet, a local area network or acellular telephone data network.

The hardware may also include a user interface sensor 545 that allowsfor receipt of data from input devices 550 such as a keyboard, a mouse,a joystick, a touchscreen, a remote control, a pointing device, a videoinput device and/or an audio input device. Data also may be receivedfrom other controllers 520 and memory device 525 such as a USB flashdrive. A positional sensor 555 may be included to detect the location ofthe user, and such information can be included in the signed data packetfor verification.

The above-disclosed features and functions, as well as alternatives, maybe combined into many other different systems or applications. Variouspresently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications,variations or improvements may be made by those skilled in the art, eachof which is also intended to be encompassed by the disclosedembodiments.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method of securely auditing revisions toan electronic document, the method comprising: by a system comprising aprocessing device, executing programming instructions that will causethe processing device of the system to: identify a first version of anelectronic document, receive, from a user electronic device, a revisedversion of the electronic document, analyze the first version and therevised version to identify one or more differences between the firstversion and the revised version, form a data packet that comprisesinformation based on the one or more differences, access a private keyfor the user electronic device or for a user of the user electronicdevice, sign the data packet with the private key, and transmit thesigned data packet to a node on a communication network; and by aprocessing device of the node on the communication network, executingprogramming instructions that will cause the processing device of thenode to: receive the signed data packet, create a block comprising thesigned data packet, validate the block, access a chain on thecommunication network, update the chain to include the validated block,and save the updated chain to a memory so that the chain is available toa plurality of authorized additional user electronic devices via thecommunication network.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, bythe processing device of the node on the communication network,executing additional programming instructions that will cause theprocessing device of the node to: verify the signed data packet beforecreating the block; and upon verification of the signed data packet,create the block comprising the data packet.
 3. The method of claim 2,wherein verifying the signed data packet comprises: verifying the signeddata packet against one or more rules to determine whether the one ormore rules are satisfied; and generating an alert when at least one ofthe one or more rules is not satisfied.
 4. The method of claim 1,further comprising, by the processing device of the system, executingprogramming instructions that will also cause the processing device ofthe system to: receive, from a second user electronic device, a secondrevised version of the electronic document; analyze the revised versionand the second revised version to identify one or more seconddifferences between the revised version and the second revised version;form a second data packet that comprises information based on the one ormore second differences; and transmit the second data packet to aplurality of nodes on the communication network.
 5. The method of claim1, further comprising generating the private key.
 6. The method of claim1, wherein validating the block comprises: verifying whether the blockis already validated by an additional node of the system; and abandoningthe validation of the block if the block is already validated.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: before updating the chain toinclude the validated block, determining whether the node has beenoffline for a period of time; and if the node has been offline for theperiod of time, obtaining an updated chain from the communicationnetwork if the node on the communication network is offline for a periodof time.
 8. The method of claim 6, further comprising: before updatingthe chain to include the validated block, determining whether the nodehas been offline for a period of time; and if the node has been offlinefor the period of time, obtaining an updated chain from thecommunication network if one or more quality criteria associated withvalidating the block are not satisfied.
 9. The method of claim 1,wherein the data packet further comprises at least one of the following:a system name; an uptime; a number of transactions processed; a numberof transactions in an unassigned pool; a current time and location ofthe user electronic device; or a user of the user electronic device. 10.The method of claim 1, further comprising executing programminginstructions that will cause the processing device of the system tovalidate the node on the communication network.
 11. A system forsecurely auditing revisions to an electronic document, the systemcomprising: a processing device; and a hardware-based non-transitorystorage medium that is operably connected to the processing device andthat stores a set of instructions configured to, when executed, causethe processing device to: identify a first version of an electronicdocument, receive, from a user electronic device, a revised version ofthe electronic document, analyze the first version and the revisedversion to identify one or more differences between the first versionand the revised version, form a data packet that comprises informationbased on the one or more differences, access a private key for the userelectronic device or for a user of the user electronic device, sign thedata packet with the private key, and transmit the signed data packet toa plurality of nodes on a communication network; and a first node on thecommunication network, wherein the first node comprises a hardware-basednon-transitory storage medium that stores a set of instructionsconfigured to, when executed, cause the processing device to: receivethe signed data packet, create a block comprising the signed datapacket, validate the block, access a chain on the communication network,update the chain to include the validated block, and save the updatedchain to a memory so that the chain is available to authorizedadditional user electronic devices via the communication network. 12.The system of claim 11, further comprising additional programminginstructions that are configured to cause the processor of the systemto: receive, from a second user electronic device, a second revisedversion of the electronic document; analyze the revised version and thesecond revised version to identify one or more second differencesbetween the revised version and the second revised version; form asecond data packet that comprises information based on the one or moresecond differences; transmit the second data packet to a plurality ofnodes on the communication network.
 13. The system of claim 11, whereinthe programming instructions that are configured to cause the processorof the system to access the private key comprise instructions to receivethe private key from a key store or a wallet.
 14. The system of claim13, wherein the programming instructions that are configured to causethe processor of the system to access the private key compriseinstructions to generate the private key.
 15. The system of claim 11,wherein the data packet comprises one or more of the following: a systemname; an uptime; a number of transactions processed; a number oftransactions in an unassigned pool; a current time and location of theuser electronic device; or a user of the user electronic device.
 16. Thesystem of claim 14, further comprising programming instructions that areconfigured to cause the processor of the system to validate the node.17. A method of securely auditing revisions to an electronic document,the method comprising: by a system comprising a processing device,executing programming instructions that will cause the processing deviceof the system to: identify a first version of an electronic document,receive, from a user electronic device, a revised version of theelectronic document, analyze the first version and the revised versionto identify one or more differences between the first version and therevised version, form a data packet that comprises information based onthe one or more difference; access a private key for the user electronicdevice or for a user of the user electronic device; sign the data packetwith the private key; transmit the signed data packet to a node on acommunication network; and by a processing device of the node on thecommunication network, executing programming instructions that willcause the processing device of the node to: receive the signed datapacket, verify the signed data packet, create a block comprising theverified and signed data packet, access a chain on the communicationnetwork, update the chain to include the block, and save the updatedchain to a memory so that the chain is available to a plurality ofauthorized additional user electronic devices via the communicationnetwork.
 18. The method of claim 17, further comprising, by theprocessing device of the node on the communication network, executingadditional programming instructions that will cause the processingdevice of the node to, before updating the chain: validate the block;and update the chain upon validation of the block.
 19. A system forsecurely auditing revisions to an electronic document, the systemcomprising: a processing device; and a hardware-based non-transitorystorage medium that is operably connected to the processing device andthat stores a set of instructions configured to, when executed, causethe processing device to: identify a first version of an electronicdocument, receive, from a user electronic device, a revised version ofthe electronic document, analyze the first version and the revisedversion to identify one or more differences between the first versionand the revised version, form a data packet that comprises informationbased on the one or more difference; access a private key for the userelectronic device or for a user of the user electronic device; sign thedata packet with the private key; transmit the signed data packet to anode on a communication network; and a first node on the communicationnetwork, wherein the first node comprises a hardware-basednon-transitory storage medium that stores a set of instructionsconfigured to, when executed, cause the processing device to: receivethe signed data packet, verify the signed data packet, create a blockcomprising the verified and signed data packet, access a chain on thecommunication network, update the chain to include the block, and savethe updated chain to a memory so that the chain is available to aplurality of authorized additional user electronic devices via thecommunication network.
 20. The system of claim 19, further comprisingadditional programming instructions that are configured to cause theprocessing device to, before updating the chain: validate the block; andupdate the chain upon validation of the block.